Seahawks, Blazers Owner Allen Says Cancer Has Returned

Billionaire Paul Allen, owner of Seattle’s Seahawks and Sounders along with the Portland Trail Blazers, announced Monday that his cancer has returned after nearly a decade in remission.

“I learned recently that the non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma that I was treated for in 2009 has returned. My team of doctors has begun treatment of the disease and I plan on fighting this aggressively,” Allen said in a statement.

“A lot has happened in medicine since I overcame this disease in 2009. My doctors are optimistic that I will see good results from the latest therapies, as am I.”

The Microsoft co-founder, 65, was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma in 1982. He reportedly received radiation therapy and a bone-marrow transplant to fight that cancer, which ultimately forced him to leave Microsoft in 1983.

In 2009, Allen was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. He underwent chemotherapy in that battle.

Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphoma are cancers that begin in white blood cells and impact the nervous system. According to the Cancer Treatment Centers of America, differences between Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphoma include age (non-Hodgkin is far more likely to be diagnosed in patients 55 and older) and frequency (roughly 8,500 cases of Hodgkin lymphoma were diagnosed in 2016; 72,500 cases of non-Hodgkin were diagnosed that same year).

Per the CTCA, the survival rate beyond five years is at least 70 percent for both forms.